Final Chance - Buy American Airlines Points for a Discount

If you saw the earlier post about buying American Airlines points, and redeeming them on Qantas flights, then you'll know that today is the final day to signup for an American Airlines account, if you don't already have one, and then buy the points while still on sale before 31 December, 2013.  

In that post we covered a number of scenarios as to how how you could redeem those points for great trips you'd otherwise pay much more for in cash.

You really need to start thinking out of the box to consider the multitude of ways you can make a trip with points and extracting value from this deal.  Feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have a question.

Today, I'll post once more about this, so you can see why you should consider buying points to use for a future trip.  I'll be showing you how to make a trip from the Gold Coast to several destinations, but your starting point could just as easily be almost any city in Australia or New Zealand.

Queenstown - Jump-Off Point for a Ski Holiday

Suppose you want to make a dream trip in June 2014.  You've always wanted to go skiing in New Zealand, or you want to go back again!

Plus, you'd like to see one of those places you'd always heard about, Broome.  

But, you'd also like to stop by and see an old friend in Sydney

And, while you're en route, you might as well check out Perth.

You can do all that for about ~$1,100 on a trip using points.  By paying cash you'd spend $1,530.  

All This for ~$1,100 - Saving you $430

As you can see in the above dummy booking, you'd be able to get maximum value for your points redemption.  You'd get to visit 2 destinations: Queenstown, New Zealand, and Broome, Western Australia. 

But additionally you'd have 21 hours in Sydney, enough to pay a quick visit to a friend, or go into the city and catch dinner and show for the night.

You'd also have 22 hours in Perth, just enough time to see a few sights, or enjoy a nice walk on the river.

Perth - Time for a Short Visit

The point of this post if to show you all the ways to take advantage of points, and especially points sales. 

While there would be extra planning involved, buying the points, locating award seats, this doesn't have to take long, to save you $430.  Or you may have other destination ideas which might save you money by buying and redeeming points instead of paying cash for tickets.  

There is the 'lost opportunity' cost to consider.  You wouldn't be earning points on the free tickets, or status credits.  But for some of us that doesn't matter.  Or if you don't fly Qantas much anyway then you may not care if you're earning points with them or not, if you'd otherwise paid cash for these tickets and then earned points. 

Even if you'd paid the flights and earned the points with Qantas, assuming you belong to their program (AUD$82.50 just to join), you need to earn A LOT of points with them to get a good return.  Their program can pay off with free flights, but you have to work pretty darn hard to earn them, in my opinion.  There are other frequent flier programs which are much more generous.  

CONCLUSION

If you've done the math and determined that the American Airlines points sale is worth it for you, be sure to buy your points before 31 December.  If you have a question be sure to comment and ask any questions before the time is up!